Starry, Starry Night
by Jennis524
Summary: I took the road less traveled. FINISHED!
1. chapter one

Title: Starry, Starry Night

Author: Jennifer Zoromski AKA Jennis524

Summary: "I took the road less traveled"

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Chris Carter, 1013, & FOX

Author's Notes: Well I was watching "The Family Man" and I got this idea…

Feedback: I love feedback! So be sure to tell me what you think.. Constructive criticism is welcome because it helps me to write better.

Enjoy!

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"Many people walk in and out of your life, but true friends leave footprints in your heart." -Eleanor Roosevelt 

Mercy Hospital, Washington DC

April 24, 2003

Footsteps echo on the hospital floor as I walk slowly, my heels clicking methodically while I walk. I stop before a room. Tears fill my eyes as I silently reach for the door knob, not bothering to knock. Mulder lays on the bed with machines hooked up to him helping him to breathe and another one that is monitoring his heart.

His beautiful hazel eyes are closed and the rhythmic beeping of the machine somehow soothes my nerves. I pull up a chair and sit down next to the bed. I grab for Mulder's hand, the wedding ring on his finger reminds me of the day we were married almost two years ago. My lips ache to kiss his full lips, but the machine that helps him breathe makes that almost impossible. 

I lay my head down in defeat as a I hold his hand. The tears start to flow freely as I watch his chest rise and fall. He once to told me to never give up on a miracle and I didn't. We now have a two year old son that is a complete miracle. 

I still believe in miracles, but the disease the aliens gave him has come back again and there is no way to cure it. I have to watch him suffer. They upped his dose of morphine because they told me that he didn't have much longer and I don't want him to be in pain. I wonder if he still remember who I am. 

His hand twitches. I lift my head surprised. Mulder opens his deep hazel eyes and stares at me intently. Those beautiful hazel eyes twinkle with recognition. Mulder still remembers who I am! I long to hear his voice again, but the machine makes it impossible for him to talk. 

He tightens his grip on my hand and there is a look in his eyes that tells me he wants to talk. But if I unhooked the respirator he'd die.

"Mulder, I can't unhook the respirator," I whisper. 

He nods his head. Determination in his eyes. A fight between my heart and my conscience starts out. One side telling me to let him talk, let his suffering end. Another side telling me to hold on to him.

Mulder takes his hand up to his mouth and starts to take the tube out of his mouth. Mulder once again made the decision for me. I smile, glad to know that he still has the determination that he once had. 

I help Mulder take out the respirator and to my surprise he breathes on his own. 

"Mulder?" I say, my voice cracking as I try to hold back my tears.

"Scully," he whispers, "I love you." 

I smile. "I love you too," I reassure him. 

Mulder closes his eyes. The pain finally taking its toll on him. I hear him struggle to breathe and I try to put the respirator back in.

"It's meant to be," Mulder barely whispers. 

Mulder looks one more time into my eyes. He looks deep down into my soul. And then I hear him draw in his last breath. A flat line and a horrible beeping announces the fated end of Mulder's life. A life that I didn't want to let go.

I stand there shocked. I too close my eyes as the last ten years flash before them. I see our first meeting all the way to his funeral three years ago. I watch him as he comes back to life, but when I open my eyes again he is gone. Dead. I will never again feel his warm lips against my own. He won't get to watch our son grow up into a man. Mulder will never see him graduate, get married or witness the birth of his first grandchild. 

My knees go weak and I finally fall to the ground. My lip trembles as I scream for a final time "THIS IS NOT HAPPENING" Then the world goes black.

__

Place Unknown

Hours Later

I see a bright light and I feel like I'm falling. From what I don't know. The years start to go backwards. I watch as William is born, I can see when Mulder came back from the dead, I relive his funeral, then I feel the anxiety of four months of searching. I feel the absolute joy of finding out about the pregnancy and I feel the loss of Mulder. Then I watch as the cases go by backwards one by one. I see genies, magicians, monsters, rain kings, fluke men, and aliens. I watch as people go in and out of our lives, Diana Fowley, Emily, my sister, Mulder's father, my own father and then I watch as I meet Mulder for the first time. His hazel eyes staring intently into my own, not wanting a new partner.

Then it stops. I open my eyes and sit on the couch of my parent's home back in 1990. It is Christmas. Missy sits on the floor shaking a present.

"Dana, you don't know who you'll meet at the FBI. You will never know what kind of life it could allow you," Missy reassures me.

I stare at her, questioning.

"Dana? You look sick," Missy tells me. 

"What the hell is going on?" I ask, feeling completely lost.

"Dana, what are you talking about? It's Christmas and we are opening our presents early. You are so funny sometimes," she says laughing.

"Where's Mulder and William?" I ask looking around for them, questioning something I already know the answer to.

"Who's Mulder? William? Bill is off at sea," Melissa says looking at me like I just lost my mind.

The doorbell rings. I get up from the couch and open the door, still feeling lost. And there before me stands Mulder, completely healthy and ten years younger. We both stare at one another, completely shocked.

"Mulder?" I whisper.

"How'd you know my name is Mulder?" he asks, obviously not knowing who I am.

"You and I worked at the FBI for eight years before you were fired by Kirsch and I had William. We were married on July 3, 2001. Our son was born in Democrat Springs, Georgia on February 15, 2001. I named him William Fox Mulder after you and your father," I finish my speech breathlessly as he looks at me very confused.

"I've never seen you before in my life," he says.

"Then what are you doing here?" I ask, feeling like a failure.

"I work for a man by the name of Charles Spender who somehow knows William Scully. I'm assuming you are his youngest daughter, Dana," Mulder says.

"Yes, I'm Dana Scully," I pause, "You don't work for the FBI?"

He laughs. "Why would I work for the FBI? I never had a passion for it."

I look at him shocked at finally ask what he does do. He responds nonchalantly, "I work for the CIA."

"The CIA, Mulder? What about your aliens or that the truth is out there? What about your sister, Samantha?" I question looking for some kind of explanation. 

"Miss Scully, I don't have a sister. I am an only child. Why would I believe in aliens?"

That's it! He is an only child. His sister's abduction was the thing that fueled him and since he doesn't even have a sister to get abducted the drive was never there. He should have been working at the FBI for at least three years now if it is December 1990. I would have met him in March of 1992.

"Mulder, why are you here then?" 

"That is strictly business between your father and me."

"I don't even know if dad is home," I say.

"Isn't he a family man. What man misses Christmas?" Mulder asks.

I stare at him and see that on his left hand he is wearing a wedding ring. "You're married," I say shocked.

"I have been for the last five years."

"Then why aren't you home with your wife?" I ask.

"She's home with my son William Fox Mulder. I don't know who you are, but you are scaring me."

I let Mulder into my house and my dad meets us at the door.

"Dana, what are you doing up at this hour?" my dad asks.

"Dad, Missy and I were in the living room talking and then Mulder shows up at the door. What have you been doing?"

My dad stares at me, questioning. He looks a little on the uncomfortable side. 

"Dana go back to bed."

"I'm twenty-six years old, I am completely capable of setting my own bed time," I say getting angry at my father and Mulder for being a different person. 

I walk back into the living room, still trying to understand what just happened there. Melissa looks at me, her eyes questioning.

"Dana?" she asks concerned.

"I'm going to join the FBI," I say completely convinced. I want to see how life will turn out if Mulder is a CIA agent and working for Spender, the smoking man. I can't for the life of me figure out why all of this is happening. Am I supposed to be convinced that the road I took that basically ended with Mulder's death was the best path. I need to hold my son, make sure he is okay. But since it is only 1990, he won't even be a thought for another ten years even if somehow Mulder and I pair up, become partners to fight crime, but right now he is what he himself would have called one of his enemies, like Morris Fletcher out by Area 51. But then that hasn't happened yet. All of the memories I have are of another life. A life that I want to get back to desperately. Even if Mulder is dead to the world in that life, that is the only life that I would want to live. Knowing that I would be the only woman he would love was something reassuring in the other life, but he has a wife and an infant son with the same name as my own son. I don't have that reassurance in this life.

"Hey Dana!" Melissa says breaking me out of my trance-like state, "I'm going back to bed. Are you coming?"

"I'll be up in a bit," I say. 

She leaves me alone in our small living room. I look at the tree, it's glittering lights making reflections on the wall. My dad and Mulder walk out to the front door, they are talking in hushed voices. I get up from the couch and tip-toe towards the front door.

"I'll make sure that you get your money, sir, You are one of the best CIA undercover investigators. Mr. Bush will be very pleased with your work out at Area 51 as will my own boss Mr. Spender. Your son is also doing a great job," Mulder tells my dad.

My father shakes his hand, "Merry Christmas to you Mr. Mulder. Go home and spend Christmas with your family."

Mulder smirks, "My wife doesn't appreciate me and I fear she will raise our son to despise me."

I step on a piece of paper and both men turn around. I smile looking at them.

"Hmm…Mulder are you leaving?" I ask.

"Yes I am, Dana," Mulder says.

"You can call me Scully. I might as well get used to it because I'm applying for a job at the FBI," I say trying to get both my dad and Mulder nervous and mad.

"Why the FBI? I hear from your dad that you are a medical doctor?" Mulder asks.

"I've always wanted to bring people to justice and medicine alone doesn't give me fulfillment like I know the FBI will," I say, trying not to choke on my words.

"Dana, I thought we had this talk before and you weren't going to join the FBI," my dad angrily says.

"Dad, I've made up my mind." I say, quickly leaving before Mulder can see tears starting to form in my eyes. The man that I grew to love was now a cold-hearted man that was working for the people that used to control his fate as well as mine. He was living a life that he would have spit on and he is completely unhappy. No aliens, no sister, and no FBI. I miss that Mulder, but deep down I think he is there. I know that sometime in the near future we will meet again and when we meet it will be the beginning of our fate.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Please ReviewJ 


	2. chapter two

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FBI Academy 

Quantico

January 2, 1991

I walk up to the doors of the Academy. How many times have I been here, right here? To other people it will look like I am a rookie agent, trying to figure out how to fire a gun, but I know how. Eight years of being a FBI agent doesn't go away very easily. 

A tall man with black hair and blue eyes comes up to me.

"Dana, I need to talk to you," the mysterious man pulls me aside.

"Who are you?" I ask. He appears to be fairly young, but for some reason he almost appears heavenly. Like he is from another world.

"I'm Jack."

"Jack? Am I supposed to know that name?" He pulls me away from where we were standing. People start to look at us.

Jack walks me towards a bench that is snow covered.

"Dana, you are wondering what you are doing in this life," he starts, "You have met your soul mate, but he isn't the man you knew for ten years, he isn't the man you said good-bye to as he drew in his last breath, he isn't Mulder."

"Yeah, well why am I here," I question.

"In life there are so many roads to travel down, so many turns you could have taken, so many choices that you could have made differently and every person that you once knew made different choices, except for you Dana, up to this point you are the same person," he informs me.

I stare at him. Everyone I have ever known is leading a different life than the one I knew of.

"Why though, why am I reliving my life?" I question, wanting to know.

"Why do you think that angels give people a chance to see another life?" 

I look at him, my eyes telling him that I don't have any idea what he's talking about. I shake my head looking at him.

"This is a glimpse," he replies.

"A glimpse?" I ask in disbelief, "And when do I go back to my son? My life?"

"When you have learned what you were sent to learn and see."

"I don't understand."

Jack shakes his head, smiling, "You do too, you just don't want to understand."

"I can't love Mulder like the way he is," I tell this good for nothing angel.

"But if you look deep enough, your love for him has lasted over time and space. And will last through any kind of life you lead."

Jack disappears before my eyes. I stare at the spot he was sitting and then I look towards the Academy. I look towards my life that I know will definitely be different. 

The days start to fly by. I watch as I once again relearn everything I ever knew. They thought I was exceptionally talented and happy that I signed on to become an FBI agent. I am no longer the 'Ice Queen' that they once called me. I find that I wasn't missing much being social. I never truly realized how boring some of my colleagues were. I made it through the FBI training course in no time, with flying colors. 

I long to see Mulder, the man I love from another life, but I haven't heard or seen from him since Christmas. I'm pretty sure that he thought I was a crazy stuck-up brat. 

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Downtown D.C.

May 24, 1991

"Dana let's go!" a young man yells. I look up from the book I am reading and stare at the young man. He is actually two years older than me, but with his baby like features he barely looks twenty-one. His glistening blue eyes twinkle as he stares back at me urgently. 

I give him a blank look, questioning as to where we are going. Andrew reads my blank expression. "A double homicide just took place out in Georgetown. A woman and her son."

"Did the husband kill them?" I ask, looking for the obvious.

"He walked into the room too late. The gunman knocked him out with the butt of the gun."

I grab my coat and walk out of the door. We are on the main level of the FBI building. It is kind of nice not being in the basement, but truthfully I miss the basement office. The memories I have of that office are countless. All the hours Mulder and I spent in there, all the hours that don't exist yet and probably won't. I think we discovered ourselves in that office, we discovered that we were meant to be. But then I stop thinking about the office full of memories as I am yanked back into reality as Derek grabs my arm and pulls me out of the door of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. 

The ride to the scene of the crime is silent. Derek drives fast keeping his eyes glued on the road. The silence gives me time to think. Think about the life that I've found myself in. It has only been five months and I already know that this life will be different. The other life seems to be a dream. 

We pull up to the crime scene, marked with yellow police tape. A body rolls out on a stretcher. I think that this is one of the victims, but I see that the person's chest is rising and falling in rhythm. The person is still alive. 

I get out of the car slowly. Walking over to the husband that survived. He survived the massacre of his wife and young son and I feel a pang of sympathy for him. I too in a way have lost my significant other and my son.

As I approach the man I start to see features, features I know. A slightly larger than normal nose, a chiseled chest, long, lanky legs. And then I realize that Mulder has reentered my life. Somehow someway fate was playing it's cards right and Mulder is now a man with a mission.

I walk up to him and stare into his deep, hazel eyes. "Mulder, do you remember me?" I barely whisper.

He stares at me long and hard. "Scully, Dana Scully," he struggles to say. 

I nod. "Mulder, I'm here to help you. I'm a medical doctor and we are going to get you safely to a hospital."

"What about Will? Or my wife?" Mulder whispers.

I look at him blankly, not knowing how to respond. He reacts to my blank stare. "They are dead aren't they?"

I just nod my head, not wanting to lie. He starts to cry silently. Tears steam down his face and he starts to doze off. 

"Mulder! Mulder! Don't close your eyes. Stay with me," I yell desperately trying to keep him conscious.

"What?" Mulder asks groggily.

A paramedic comes up behind me and pushes the stretcher into the ambulance giving Mulder oxygen. I watch as they close the doors and take him away. I pray to God that I will see him again. 

They start to roll out his wife and son. Their bodies covered with a white sheet, a mask of death. 

******************************************************************

Mercy Hospital   
Washington DC   
May 30, 1991 

I watch as Mulder sleeps quietly. His chest rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern. He is just sleeping, not dying, or in a coma. Just sleep. Something I wish could have been so simple for him in the other life. I have stayed by his side now for the last six days, but he refuses to talk, to look at me. All he does is sleep. 

"Scully," Derek whispers behind me. I look up and see him. He is motioning for me to come out in the hall with him. I get up slowly from the chair that is next to Mulder's bed. 

I silently shut the door behind me. Derek looks at me concerned. 

"What?" I ask reading his look. 

"Why are you spending so much time with this man that is part of the CIA? He is most likely the cause of any government conspiracy that comes his way," he finishes getting angry. 

I look at Derek and see jealousy in his eyes. I completely ignore his question. "Have they figured out who killed his wife and son?" 

Derek shakes his head 'no'. "I've got to get going," Derek pauses, "You'd better come back to work or you'll most likely lose any chance of ever sitting in the Director's chair." 

He turns away and starts to walk. I yell after him, "Don't you get it Derek?" He stops and turns back to me. 

"Get what Dana? That you think you have some kind of connection to this man? That you think you'll get into the Director's chair someday sitting around a hospital with a damn rat," he spits out the last words. 

He turns away and that was the last time I ever saw him. He resigned the next day and transferred out to Washington state to be closer to his family. 

I stare at the back of his head as he walks away. And then I sit down in the chair that is outside Mulder's room. I put my head down in defeat, but then I start to laugh. Laughing at the man that had just walked out of my life, realizing that Mulder was probably the best partner I ever had. 

I hear footsteps in the hallway and I look up. There before me stands the Smoking man himself. Looking just as evil as the last time I saw him alive in the other life. His lips curl up into a wicked smirk. "Dana Scully...What a surprise to see you here." 

I glare at him and his evilness and realize that I might not be the only one that knows that this is just a glimpse of the life I could have lived. Maybe he knows it too. 

I stare up at his evil gaze, wondering what in the world he is doing here. He reaches for something in his pocket and pulls out a pack of Morleys. The smoking man starts to light the cigarette, but pauses looking at me. 

"You'd die for this man, but yet you can't love him," he says repeating the same exact words I had heard come from his lips in another life. 

"What are you talking about?" I ask looking at him. 

"Don't you see Dana. I made it possible for you to grab a hold of him," he says whispering. I can just hear the evil dripping in his voice. He finally lights up his cigarette. 

"Why would you do that? Your only motive is to save yourself. Your own sorry a**" I tell him. 

He takes a drag on his cigarette and laughs, "You are so wrong, Dana. My only intention is for you to make it right." 

I look at him confused, "To make what right?" 

The smoking man stares at me. Looking deep into my eyes and then he opens his mouth, but decides against it and closes it. 

"What? To make what right?" I just about scream at the man. 

"They are here Agent Scully and Mulder is the one that has to stop them. To save the world and myself. He needs that drive, something to keep him going and you are the key to that," he tells me this and leaves. I stare at his back as he walks away, dumbfounded. 

I turn back to the room Mulder is in. Completely and entirely ready to live the life that I never did. There are forces at work...trying to connect us. Trying to get us to do the same work that I did with Mulder in the other life. Maybe I'm starting to understand this glimpse thing...maybe I'll get it, but then I hear a loud 'BEEP' come from Mulder's room. I stare at the wall in a daze, thinking that it is the end of Mulder's life...and I start to shake as nurses rush into his room. Rushing to save him...to bring him back. 

TO BE CONTINUED…heheJ 


	3. chapter three

Chapter Three

All other information in first chapter.

Please R&R:)

*****

I race into Mulder's room my heart pounding. I fear the worst. But then I see him. Sitting there on the bed with a smirk on his face, trying not to laugh. 

"What? This thing got uncomfortable on my chest...I didn't think I needed it any more," Mulder says...in his sarcastic tone that I had grown to love in the other life. I look at him, completely shocked. 

I race to his bedside not remembering that it is not the same Mulder that I had once known and been married too. I take him in my arms and hug him. "Mulder, don't do that to me," I say trying to keep the tears from forming in my eyes. 

"I've only met you once before and you act like you know me," Mulder whispers. I pull away quickly from the embrace that I had started, realizing my mistake. 

"I'm sorry," I barely utter. 

He looks at me. His beautiful hazel eyes looking into my soul. I can tell that Mulder is thinking of something, trying to put together everything that has happened. 

"This seems really strange, but I feel some sort of connection to you. Like I've known you much longer than a few hours...more like a lifetime," Mulder finally says. 

I stare at him and then I start to cry. And I never cry. Mulder looks at me shocked. 

"What? What is it Scully?" Mulder tries to comfort me. 

Through the tears I see a tiny flame in his eyes, a flame of the man that he once was to me in a different life. Looking at that flame that is imbedded deep in his eyes makes something click within my own soul and I stop crying. 

"Mulder, I think I know who killed your wife and son and I know exactly how you'll track him down," I inform him. 

"Who?" Mulder asks looking in my eyes for the truth. A truth that we are both desperately after.   


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J. Edgar Hoover Building   
Washington DC   
June 3, 1991 

I silently walk down the deserted hallway that I once remember as the office that Mulder and I worked in. I reach the door that and stop abruptly looking at it. 

There is no name on the door. I start to turn the doorknob, but the door opens quickly and before me stands a man that I know, a man that had become my friend during the six months that Mulder was missing. There before me stood Agent Doggett, looking at me with is beady blue eyes. 

"They said that somebody would be coming down here," he tells me gruffly. 

"Agent Doggett? What are you doing down here?" I question wanting to know what a skeptical man like him is doing down in the X-Files office. 

"I'm not an agent, Agent...what is your name?" he asks. 

"Scully, Dana Scully," I tell him. 

"Agent Scully, I'm a police officer with the DCPD. I'm here down in this office looking for a file. They said that they'd send someone down here to help me," he says going back in through the open door. 

I follow him through the door. My breath gets caught in my throat as I look at the tiny office. It is completely packed with crap. Tons and tons of files are all over the shelves and flooded onto the desk. "I WANT TO BELIEVE" screams to be read on the bulletin board and I smile. Someone had that poster down here long before Mulder ever did. It brings back so many memories that I had started to forget. 

"I wasn't sent down here to help you. I'm a new agent with the FBI and I was curious...I was taking a tour of the basement," I tell him making an excuse for being down in the office. 

"Well, Agent Scully, maybe you should help me. You probably know more about these files than I would." 

"What exactly are you looking for?" I question. 

"A case that involves an abduction," he says bluntly starting to shift through the files. 

"An alien abduction?" I ask, not believing that he's looking for that. 

"No, not an alien abduction," he says annoyed, "A kidnapping case of little girls. We think that we've found the kidnapper." 

I start to look through the files and see that they are indeed X-Files. Tons that I have never ever seen. Some that I bet Mulder wouldn't even believe. 

"I don't think that you will find those files down here. These are files that deal with the paranormal," I tell Doggett starting to leave the office. 

"Yeah you are right. Thanks for your help," Doggett says leaving the office. I watch him go and shake my head. He too had chosen a different life. I couldn't believe that. He probably was never part of the military or the NYPD. 

I start to look through the files and shake my head. Tons of files from the 1940's of alien abductions. If Mulder was the Mulder that he once was he'd be all over these cases. Devouring them, learning from them, trying to find his sister, but he doesn't have a sister that was abducted by aliens in this life. 

Thinking of Mulder...I remember that I have to go and pick him up at the hospital. I walk over the I WANT TO BELIEVE poster and carefully roll it up taking it with me. I walk out of the door, turning off the lights behind me. Walking away from the office I spent years in, but then I remember that those years haven't existed yet. I am more determined now than ever before to find the truth...to return to my other life and save Mulder...and to hold my little boy in my arms again. It all seems like a dream. A dream that I want to wake up from.   


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J. Edgar Hoover Building   
Washington DC   
June 8, 1991 

"Scully, Why is this so important and why am I blindfolded?" Mulder asks annoyed. 

"We are almost there," I tell him guiding him around boxes and files that are scattered throughout the basement hallway. I'm leading Mulder in the X-Files office. 

"Why am I letting you, a person that I barely know, take me somewhere blindfolded. I'll probably get jumped or something. You do realize that I work for the CIA, don't you?" Mulder asks, using his sarcastic tone that I love. 

"Believe me Mulder I don't think that you will get jumped in this kind of place. You'd better not at least," I reassure him. 

We finally reach the X-Files office. I pause before the door, taking a deep breath before I open it. I slowly open the door as it creaks slightly. The room is completely dark. I take off Mulder's blindfold and then quickly turn on the lights. 

I watch his face as he stares around the room, taking in the atmosphere of this very room. The room is clean. Two small desks sit in the middle of the room. A huge bulletin board with pictures of aliens, monsters, and doctor charts cling to the cork. The office is basically the same way that I remembered it. The same way that I had left it in 2002, but I had restored it to that. 

"What is this?" Mulder asked amazed. 

"Do you recognize it at all Mulder?" I ask, hoping maybe that deep down he knows about this office...remembers it from another life. 

He stares...again looking, taking in the small basement office. I watch him and I can see that in his beautiful hazel the spark that I saw before in the hospital. Maybe he, too, is having a glimpse of the life he could have led, but doesn't know it yet. 

"Scully, This seems so familiar and I don't know why it does. Before this day I've never placed my foot inside the FBI building, but for some reason I feel like I've been here before...right here. Spent a lot of time here. I know that this may sound strange coming from the mouth of CIA agent, but this has to mean something, something very big," Mulder says, completely and entirely sincere. 

"Mulder, you don't know how much I've wanted to hear you say that," I tell him trying to not run up and hug him. 

I watch him as he starts to walk around the room. Looking at every little thing and then he picks up a file, an x-file and starts to read. I watch as his brow furrows as he reads deeper and deeper into the file. I'm experiencing history here...watching Mulder read his first X-File. Watching him makes me want to start our long awaited quest for the truth. It makes me want to go home again and see my baby boy. I just about break down in tears, wanting to touch my son again, my little miracle, my William. 

"What?" Mulder asks looking up at me concerned. 

"Nothing, I'm fine," I whisper looking at Mulder, uttering my famous 'I'm fine' phrase for the first time...and that probably won't be the last time. 

"Let's go," Mulder says taking a few files with him to read and to devour. 

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Scully Home   
June 15, 1991

I walk quickly up to my parents' front door. Everything is quiet. The sun has just begun to set and my parents wanted to see me. I knock on the door, but I hear no movement from within the house. And there are no lights on inside. I knock again, but still nothing. 

"Mom? Dad?" I anxiously call out to my parents. I try the door, but it is locked. I walk around the back of the home, trying the other door, but I do not prevail. 

I run back to my car, now desperate and reach for my newly purchased cell phone. I dial quickly and hear the phone ringing...ringing. "Come on, Mulder pick up," I say to myself. 

But he doesn't. 

Leaves crunch behind me. I turn and see the man that I despised in the other life as well as this one. Before me stood the smoking man. To see him twice in less than a month both surprised and scared me. 

"Where are my parents?" I ask, trying to stay calm. 

"They are safe," he says taking out a Morely and lighting it up. 

"Where are they?" I hiss at him. Wanting to find my parents. 

He smiles...his lips pulled up in a smirk. "Dana, you don't trust me. Why is it so hard to?" He whispers...with his evil voice. 

"I can't trust the devil," I pause looking at him, wanting to see my parents, "Where are my parents?" 

He starts to walk off. 

"ANSWER ME!" I scream after him. He stops abruptly and turns to face me. 

"I only want what's best for everyone," he replies, his mouth turning up into an evil smirk again. He takes a drag on his cigarette. 

"You only want the thing that's best for your sorry self," I spit the words out. 

"Why do you think Mulder trusts you?" he asks. 

I glare at him. I don't want to respond. 

"He trusts you because he wants something from you. He wants something that now one else can give him," he answers for me. 

"I don't believe you. I can't believe you," I reply...whispering. 

He laughs his evil laugh and walks away from me. All of the possibilities that he has stirred in my head are unbelievable. I start to wonder if maybe he is right. I start to doubt the Mulder I knew and love I start to doubt the Mulder that I know now. 


	4. chapter four

Chapter Four

All other information in chapter one

*****

__

July 5, 1991   
Place Unknown 

I walk quickly and quietly towards the destination that I was told of. Mulder wanted me to meet him in secret because the CIA would think that it was strange that an FBI agent was associating with the CIA. 

I knock on the hidden door that is barely visible if you didn't know what you were looking for. Mulder opens the door and welcomes me in to the tiny nook. 

"Mulder what is it?" I ask looking at him urgently. 

"I've made a decision," he replies, quietly. I stare at him, waiting for him to respond. "I've been thinking about this a lot lately and have been weighing my options, but I have decided to join the FBI," Mulder says finishing looking at me for some kind of approval. 

"Mulder...," I whisper, not believing it. "I can't believe it." 

"You'd better believe it, Scully," Mulder tells me, "I also have this feeling that I some how belong down in that office, like it needs me to ask the paranoid questions. People need me to." 

I stare at him, not knowing that I'm falling in love with Mulder all over again. He now has the passion, the drive. 

"What changed your mind?" I ask wanting to hear his reply. 

"I want to find my wife and son's killer. I want to bring justice to the people in all of those X-Files that are just disregarded as unexplainable because the FBI doesn't want to run around chasing little green men for answers," Mulder responds. 

"I'd kiss you right now Mulder if I didn't think that it would scare you away," I tell him passionately. 

He smiles at me and any doubt that I ever had about him completely vanished. This is the beginning of a long partnership. 

"Scully, have you found your parents yet?" Mulder asks breaking my thoughts. 

"I'm afraid that they have disappeared for good. I've put out a missing persons APBs, but nothing has turned up in the last two weeks," I inform him. 

He just nods, his face in a far off look. Like he knows something more than he's telling me, more than he's telling the rest of the world.   
  
_July 8, 1991   
Scully's Apartment _

I walk around my apartment silently, wondering what I'm doing here. I've been contemplating my life a lot in the last three days. My parents are nowhere to be found. Mulder is becoming the man that I once knew and I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be taking a glimpse at. 

I sit down on my couch trying to take in some quiet time, but as my eyes become heavy there is a knock at the door. I get up quickly, trying to shake the sleepiness off. 

"Yes?" I question before I get to the door. 

No one replies. I reach the door and look out the peephole. I see in front of me Jack, my guardian angel. I swing the door open quickly glad that he has finally found me. 

"Jack? What are you doing here?" I ask looking at him. 

He stares back at me. His eyes dancing with laughter, but his face showing no emotion. 

"Jack?" I ask again, "Have I seen my glimpse. Is it time to go back?" I anxiously question. 

"No, Dana, you have a long life ahead of you. This glimpse will last as long as it takes you to figure out what your life means to you," he says prophetically. 

"I've seen that glimpse. My love for Mulder is my life. I can love him in any life," I tell him. 

He stares at me long and hard trying to figure me out. "Don't you get it Dana, your parents are missing even though this is only a glimpse you should be turning the world upside down to find your parents and the killer of Mulder's wife and son. It isn't who you think it is," Jack says and quickly backs away, leaving me standing there staring at the open door, pondering my life. This life the one that I'm meant to see a glimpse of...one that is becoming my own.   


__

July 10, 1991   
X-Files Office 

I pace silently as I wait for Mulder to appear in this office, the one that we spent so much time in, in years that were only memories for me and not him. 

I hear footsteps in the hallway and stop my pacing...looking up anxiously. Mulder walks through the door with a sullen look on his face. 

"What is it Mulder?" I ask. 

Mulder doesn't respond. His hazel eyes look deep into mine and I can see the sorrow that he feels, not for himself, but for me. 

"Mulder?" I ask again, hoping for some kind of response. 

Mulder walks over to a file cabinet and pulls out a file. He hands it to me urging me to read it with his silent pleas. 

"Mulder this is my parents' file. What am I supposed to be looking at here?" I question getting annoyed by Mulder. 

"The case is closed," Mulder whispers...his words forced. 

I stare at him not realizing what he is saying. 

"What do you mean the case is closed? Mulder? I don't...understand," I inquire already knowing what he'll say next. 

Mulder moves towards me...his arms outstretched trying to take me in for a strong embrace, but I back away. 

"Mulder?" I ask wanting to hear his explanation. 

"I'm so sorry, Scully. They found your parents dead not more than half an hour ago," Mulder whispers with compassion. 

I turn away from him, tears stinging in my eyes. I'd lost my parents...I'd lost my dad again and now I've lost my mom. I can't bare this...I won't. 

"Mulder, you must be mistaken. I was told that they'd be returned safely, that they'd be okay," my voice quivers as I tell him this. 

Mulder shakes his head...this time moving in for that long embrace that I don't resist. 

"I'm sorry...but I think my involvement in this office got them killed," Mulder tells me already blaming himself for deaths in my family. 

"Mulder it's not your fault. My dad has...had a risqué job...I can't...believe this," I finally let down my emotion guard and cry. Crying for the life that I've started to destroy...for the life that I wanted back and for the life of Mulder...the man that I love with all of my heart no matter what life we are living in. Mulder watches me cry my heart out and then looks at me, smiling. 

"Scully, that isn't like you to cry," Mulder tells me, perhaps remembering me from another life. 

I just smile at him as I start to anticipate the rest of this life and the glimpse that I'm meant to see. 

__

August 4, 1991   
X-Files Office 

Mulder sits sharpening a whole handful of pencils, trying to do something and not be bored. He blows off the pencil dust and starts to play with them, shooting them at the ceiling...some stick. I try not to stare at him to long, but it brings a smile to my lips. I'm surprised that he isn't eating sunflower seeds and reading another X-File about alien abductions. 

"Mulder are you bored?" I ask him quietly. 

"What?" he asks startled almost tipping over in his already reclined chair. 

"Never mind," I respond. 

"Scully, you know we need a good X-File to investigate," Mulder says nonchalantly. 

"Yeah, Mulder I think you are right. I mean we are in the X-Files' office and I'm guessing that is what you are supposed to investigate," I tell him sarcastically. 

Mulder pulls out a file from underneath his desk. "I think this one is an interesting one," Mulder smiles at me. 

I get up out of my seat and walk over to him, grabbing the file. I start to read. "ALIEN ABDUCTION" screams to be read on the front headline of a newspaper clipping. I raise my eyebrow, skeptically. 

"Alien Abductions, Mulder?" I ask skeptically. 

He gives me a hundred dollar smile, grabs his coat and starts to walk out the door. "Mulder?" I question. 

"Come on Scully, our destination: Bellflower, Oregon," Mulder says over his shoulder. I follow him out the door, ready for the case of a lifetime.

__

August 6, 1991   
Bellflower, Oregon 

I stare silently at the dead body of Teresa Neman. Her icy eyes staring back up at mine. I can't take it any longer. I close her eyes. They tell such a story, one that she was supposed to live. She was dropped out of the sky by an unidentified object, Mulder believes that it was a UFO, but in my skeptical ways I try and argue. 

I continue to stare at her lifeless body. Death has taken its toll on her and I have stopped mid-sentence in the autopsy. Mulder walks in quietly, staring at me. 

"Scully?" he questions looking at my blank stare. 

I look up, my eyes boring into his deep hazel ones. 

I turn off the tape recorder and look back at him. 

"Mulder, I have something to tell you," I say quietly. 

"What is it?" inquires Mulder. 

I lick my lips, nervous, trying to think of a reasonable way to explain to him that I knew this woman in another life. I saw her almost dead in a hospital bed after a known abduction that he too, was a victim of, but then I know that this will never happen to her. It will never happen to Mulder. 

"I know who this woman is," I pause quietly, looking at Mulder, "After this abduction she would have claimed to be a multiple alien abductee, six years later she would have married a police officer by the name of Robert Hoese and in time she would give birth to a child that was never meant to be, a child so special, a child that is like our own son, the one that is immune to the virus," I stop after I uttered the whole speal in almost a monotone voice. 

Mulder looks at me a minute longer and then cracks a smile, "No, more dead bodies for you today, Scully. I think it is time for that break that you should have taken yesterday." 

I smile at him and start to walk out, but I turn back and stare at Teresa Neman's still, lifeless body and I start to tremble. Fearing for the lives of all of the people that I had ever known in my other life because so much is different, so much has changed. I fear for the life of my own son that has yet to be born, yet to come into this world and save it. 

*******

---- Next chapter


	5. chapter five

Chapter Five

All other information in first chapter

*****

__

August 8, 1991   
Bellflower, Oregon 

Mulder and I sit staring at the blank wall inside the prison cell of Billy Miles. The blank blue eyes stare back at me. He is definitely a cold-blooded killer through and through. He didn't have to be an alien replacement. 

"How can I re-phrase this for you, Mr. Miles," Mulder pauses, getting annoyed, "we know that you had some involvement in Theresa Neman's death. You might as well talk now because you have nothing to lose." 

I place my hand on Mulder's arm, telling him to stop. "Mulder," I whisper. 

He angrily pulls away from me and gets up out of the chair. He starts to pace the room while I continue to stare back at Billy Miles. His blue eyes twinkle with recognition. 

"You're one of them," Billy whispers. 

"One of who?" I ask him. 

"You've been abducted. You saw the light," Billy tells me prophetically. 

"I've never been abducted," I tell him calmly...because I really hadn't been in this life...in the other one, yes, but not this one. 

"What does that have to do with anything?" Mulder butts in. 

"She's been abducted numerous times," insists Billy and then he looks at Mulder, "And you will be." 

I can see Mulder fuming in his shoes. He walks over to the cell door and screams, "GUARD!...GUARD!" 

The guard rushes to the door and opens it. I follow a fuming Mulder out of the cell and the prison. He doesn't say a word all the way through the prison. Finally, we get outside and he stops. 

"Mulder?" I question. 

He turns around and confronts me. 

"What is it?" I ask again. 

"Billy Miles...," he pauses. 

"Billy Miles what, Mulder?" 

"He's right..." 

"Right about what?" 

"Your abduction," Mulder whispers. 

I stare at him in disbelief. Mulder knows somehow or someway that I was once abducted or maybe he knows something about my past that I don't. 

__

August 10, 1991   
X-Files Office 

"Its all right here, Scully. Everything about your abduction," Mulder says quietly handing me a file. 

I shake my head in disbelief. "Mulder this can't be right. I know that I've never ever been abducted before. Jack said that everything is the same. I wasn't abducted in the other life and so I couldn't have been in this one," I mumble, my voice getting softer as I finish. 

Mulder gives me a blank stare. "Scully, just read it," he demands quietly. 

I start to read, silently. My name appears at the top of the file, my birth date and then my age appears. It says that I was eight years old when I was abducted for the first time. There is a tracking record of all off the years that I was abducted. And then there are accounts of hypnotic sessions that I went through as a child. Copies of diary entries, police reports and then finally there is a death certificate at the very end of the file. I stare at it, not completely comprehending it. It is not my own, but rather a child of mine. A daughter, Emily Ann Scully, born on December 25, 1982 when I was sixteen. The child lived only a week. 

I finish reading the entire file and look up at Mulder. He looks back into my eyes, questioning everything in that file. 

"Scully? I don't understand. I thought that you would tell me about this. I thought that we trusted one another," Mulder states looking hurt. 

"Mulder, I swear to God that I never knew anything about this. I can't even begin to explain it," I try and tell him, trying to convince myself as well. 

"You must have known. Why else would someone want to investigate alien abductions if they themselves had been abducted," Mulder says, the trust completely leaving his eyes. 

I stare at him questioning his statement and then I take a closer look at the file. It is an X-File, Number 100, meaning that it had been documented twenty years ago when I was eight. 

My parents knew about it all along, but then I realize that somehow my parents were much like Mulder's in the other life. His father worked for the CIA, like my father had in this life. So for some reason my dad had to make a choice, one of his children had to be abducted...and that child was me. Mulder gets up from his desk and walks away...possibly walking completely out of my life. 

I stand staring at the door that Mulder had just exited from, his footsteps echoing on the cold tile outside the door. I look at the file once again, staring at it, not believing a word of it. My parents are both dead...I can't ask them if it is true and I'm pretty sure that they'd deny it if they were still alive. Something must have gone wrong in this life, something must have changed. 

I start to rummage through the stuff in my desk until I pull out a cylinder shaped object. It's the I WANT TO BELIEVE poster. I take out carefully, unroll it and curse myself for doing it, but I tear it down the center, ripping apart the whole meaning of wanting to believe. 

Footsteps echo in the hall outside our office, getting closer and closer until they stop at the door. I look up from the two halves of the poster and see a shadowy figure in the door. 

"Who's there?" I ask into the dark hallway. 

The person steps forward, revealing themselves. There before me stands, not Mulder, but rather Deep Throat. 

"Who are you?" I ask, scared that I'm seeing a ghost. 

"I have information for you," he whispers almost silently. 

"What kind of information?" I question. 

"About your abduction," he states, taking another step towards me. He looks at my hands holding the ripped poster and shakes his head. "Dana, ripping that poster is saying that you know what is out there, but you can't accept it and in that you are lying to yourself. You are lying to Mulder." 

"Mulder doesn't trust me anymore," I almost whine at him. 

"That man will trust you in any life, including this one," Deep Throat says. 

I stare at him in disbelief. He knows that I'm not supposed to be here. He reads this blank stare that I'm giving him and starts to come towards me, producing a file. 

"This is only a tidbit. I can't give you the whole puzzle because then you wouldn't be fulfilling the reason you are here," he says starting to retreat to the door. 

"You are telling me that if I solve this case, I'll be able to go home?" I ask excitedly. 

"Dana the future is yours and yours alone," Deep Throat says prophetically and walks out of the office, leaving me to ponder the exact meaning of this life and to understand what exactly that this case it meant to uncover. 

I start to read the X-File that Deep Throat had just left with me. My fingers waver over the front page. It's a file about a woman that was abducted numerous times, recieved an incurable cancer, was cured miraculously, and then became pregnant with a child that was the result of a miraculous conception. It was my story, the one that I yelled at Doggett for bringing to my attention after Duffy Haskell claimed that his wife gave birth to an alien. 

This case had records throughout eight years of this woman's life, her name still unrevealed. I read through every account. She was abducted when she was eight, underwent tons of medical procedures, she was returned barely alive and was thought to have been dead for almost five minutes before they revived her. 

She couldn't remember her abduction, underwent hypnosis, and in turn started to remember. By the time she was twenty she had gained a strong interest in medical science and pathology. She became a FBI agent when she was twenty-four, partnered with a man that she both lost and found again after his untimely death. When she was thirty-seven years old she gave birth to a son and not long after that she was killed by unknown sources. 

Her son is now thirty years old and followed her same path. I stop my reading at stare at her son's innocent five year old face. It was the last picture taken of him before an unknown man kidnapped him. I could pick those eyes from anywhere and that nose stood out so prominent on the child. I could also see my son in this picture. 

I flip the picture over. The date on the back is 1966. The child to my utter surprise is Mulder. 

His mother is an X-File and I think that Mulder knows more about this case, more about this life than he would lead you on to believe, more than he would lead me on to believe. 

I pick up my coat hastily and run towards the door. Making my way up the stairs and out the FBI building with the file in hand, needing to find Mulder. 

******

Next chapter -----


	6. chapter six

Chapter Six

All other information in chapter one

******

__

Mulder's Apartment   
August 10, 1991 

I walk up quietly to apartment number '42' and stop, gathering myself as I raise my knuckles to knock on the door. My other hand trembles as I hold onto the file that Mulder's mom had in the X-files office. 

I knock. Footsteps from with in the room echo on the wooden floor. Mulder opens the door reluctantly. His face falls as he sees that it is me behind the door. "Were you expecting some one else?" I ask him. 

He pokes his head further out of the door and looks up and down the hall. He opens the door further and lets me in. 

"Scully, it's not safe for you to be here," Mulder says compassionately, sounding like he was still hurt from our confrontation this morning. 

"What do you mean it's not safe to be here?" I ask, my voice wavering. 

He shuts the door behind me and walks back into his living room. Mulder paces the floor slowly, silently, trying to think of something to say. As if he completely shook it off he asks me what I'm doing here. 

I hold out the file for him to read. 

"What is this?" Mulder asks suspiciously. I don't respond. 

"Scully, don't keep me guessing. Look what happened this morning when I did that to you," Mulder finishes. 

"It's a file," I start. 

"Yeah, I can see that," Mulder says sarcastically. 

"It's a file on your mother," I continue. 

Mulder's grin drops from his face and he gets a confused look on his face. I continue against my own better judgment, hearing my own words echo off the hallow walls of his apartment. I tell him of the woman that lived through abductions, cancer, and became pregnant with a miracle child, and then her own death. I show Mulder the picture. 

He shakes his head, trying to get rid of everything that I had just told him. 

"Scully, that's impossible. My mother is still alive and well. You could talk to her if you really wanted to," whispers Mulder. 

"Mulder, you don't get this. This picture is of you. Your mother was killed a few months after your birth and for some unknown reason you were kidnapped," I say grimacing at my every word. I don't want to hurt him any more. 

Mulder stops pacing and walks over to his desk. He takes out a photo album and starts to page through it, looking for evidence that he wasn't kidnapped. "This can't be," he mutters to himself, "There isn't a picture here taken before 1966." 

"Mulder," I whisper trying to comfort him. 

He grabs his jacket and heads for the door. He turns back and looks at me. "Are you coming?" 

I smile and follow him out of the door. Following him as we start out on the biggest case of our lives. The biggest case that either one of us will ever encounter again. 

But a shot rings out into the night. Mulder falls to the ground clutching his chest. I scream into the dark night. Screaming for the man that I love and will forever love. 

__

Mercy Hospital   
August 12, 1991 

I silently pace outside Mulder's door. A tiny set back, well actually it was almost a fatal setback has faced us. A small man in a black coat and glasses walks up to me. His eyes are focused on the floor, but I could recognize that small figure anywhere. 

"Frohike! What are you doing here?" I ask completely shocked. 

He looks up surprised to see me actually acknowledge him. In his right hand is a UFO magazine that screams on the cover 'ALIEN ABDUCTION.' I smirk at him. 

"Ms. Scully, I presume?" Frohike asks trying to sound as intelligent as he can. 

"Yes, What are you doing here?" I ask him again. 

He looks up and down the hallway, suspiciously. "This isn't a safe place to talk." 

"I don't think there will ever be a safe place to talk," I tell him, trying not to laugh. 

He hands me the magazine. It falls open to an article in the middle of it and I see that the author is a Reynard Muldrake. 

"What is this?" I ask him. 

"This is a key to the puzzle that you are trying to solve, the opening point to the biggest case of both of your lives," Frohike tells me prophetically. 

"And?" I question, getting annoyed. 

"A man by the name of Fox Mulder, Sr. wrote this thirty years ago. He is Mulder's father. 

A man that doesn't exist in any other life," Frohike tells me. 

I stare at him and then it finally clicks. Mulder is a junior and he wasn't in another life. The missing link. It is everything that we will need. I walk away from Frohike taking the article and I walk silently into Mulder's hospital room for a second time this year. 

Mulder is sleeping soundly, but as I step on the cold tile my shoes click. He opens his eyes slowly and smiles at me. 

"Mulder, I think I know how to solve this," I tell him. 

"How?" Mulder whispers. 

"We find your father," I tell him. 

He shakes his head. "You won't find him. I can promise you that," Mulder says, "My father died before I was born." 

I stare at him, my plan falling. We now had to find a man that is most likely not alive and we have to find the person who shot Mulder, the person that wanted his life as well as mine. This is becoming one heck of a glimpse. 

__

August 15, 1991   
Somewhere in Washington 

I walk ahead of Mulder, holding my gun out in front of me looking. Mulder's arm is in a sling to keep the pressure off of his gunshot wound. I stop quickly and Mulder almost runs into me. Footsteps shuffle on the wet cement, quickly around the corner. 

Mulder turns off the flashlight that he was holding and waits. I slowly turn the corner, trying not to make a sound. A man in a black trench coat stands in the dark; a lighted cigarette is in his mouth. 

The smoking man once again is here, our paths have crossed again. 

"I didn't think that you'd come Dana, Fox," he whispers, his voice hoarse. 

"We got the phone call at the hospital. What do you want?" I ask him talking for both Mulder and I. 

"I have information for you about Mulder's father and his mother," he says, hissing. 

"What kind of information?" Mulder asks, looking at the man with a hateful look. 

I study both of them, trying to find similarities between the two. In the other life the smoking man claimed that he was Mulder's father, but I don't see a resemblance in either one of their faces. 

The smoking man looks at me, and sees me pondering, thinking. "I'm not his father, Dana. I know what you are thinking, but I'm not," he reassures my thoughts. 

"Then who is?" an annoyed Mulder asks. 

"I can't tell you that," he says his voice getting softer, more suspicious. 

"Then what can you tell us?" Mulder whispers. 

"I can give you a clue." 

"Oh great, another, damn clue that will lead us to a dead end. Don't you get it? I've be down in that office for two months, two months and I've figured out that in this line of work nothing ever gets solved," Mulder screams in frustration. 

The smoking man holds out a small piece of paper. 

"Coordinates? What are these supposed to tell us?" I ask. 

"That is your new destination, another piece to the puzzle," he says, walking off into the dark shadows. 

Mulder puts his head down in defeat. I take my arm and put it around his. 

"Mulder," I say softly, "Let's go." 

He just nods and holds his hand as we walk back to the car, taking the next step in the biggest case of our lives. 

  
_August 21,1991   
London, England _

Mulder paces the waiting area quickly, waiting for me to get off the phone. I don't even hear the person I'm talking to. My mind is completely on Mulder. He's gone through so much in just under a few months. He lost his wife and son, got a new job, new partner, and was almost killed. 

"Ma'am?" the British voice on the other end of the phone questions. 

"Yes, I'm still here...Umm...Yep, I've got the address...thank-you very much," I reply and hang up the phone. 

Mulder stops pacing and walks back over to me. 

"Well? What'd they say?" Mulder asks like an anxious child. 

"There are two F. Mulder's in the area and one R. Muldrake. Mr. Muldrake lives here in London, but the other two live in the country side, miles from civilization," I tell him. 

"The one furthest away," Mulder says, not completely there. 

"Are you sure?" I ask him. 

"Scully, how many times have I been wrong since you've known me?" asks Mulder, as a smirk goes across his face. 

I don't respond right away, thinking of the times that he had been wrong. He sees my questionable look. 

"Well, with this kind of thing anyway," Mulder says almost exactly like he did when we were in the middle of Texas. 

"Well that Mr. F. Mulder lives seventy miles away from here. If we start now we'll get there before dark," I tell him. 

I start to walk thinking that Mulder is following, but when I turn back to tell him something he's not right behind me. He's still looking out the window, thinking. I walk back to him. 

"Mulder?" I question. 

"Yeah," he says, not there at all. 

"I'm going to go rent a car. Would you like to come with me?" I ask. 

"Yeah, sure, I'll be there in a second," he responds. 

I walk over to the rent a car stand. Two woman stand in front of me, trying to bargain for a deal on a car. I roll my eyes, looking at my watch, and getting impatient. A tap on my shoulder turns me around reluctantly. 

Mulder stands there before me, looking almost lost. 

"What is it Mulder?" I ask concerned. 

"Scully, I know that I'm right," Mulder responds. 

"Okay Mulder. I'm going to get a car and then we'll drive out there." 

He nods and stands next to me, thinking. I often wonder what goes through his head some days. 

"Scully, I think I know what happened to my mother. I think I know what happened to you," Mulder breaks the silence. And in breaking that he starts to reveal a life that he shouldn't know exists. 

*******

Next chapter ---


	7. chapter seven

Chapter Seven

All other information in chapter one

******

__

Hours Later   
_Middle of No Where   
England _

Mulder sits silently watching the road, driving rather quickly. His mind is not in this vehicle, I don't even think that it is in this country. 

The sun starts to set, throwing its beautiful orange and yellow to the darkening skies. I look out at the countryside. Not much is out here. You could kill some one out here and no one would ever hear the scream, find the body. Just thinking that makes chills go up my spine. 

"Mulder, Are you okay?" I finally ask breaking the long and unending silence. 

Mulder stares ahead at the road, obviously thinking. 

"What I said back there about what I thought happened to you and to my mother; it's a hunch. And that's all it is," Mulder says. 

"Would you care to tell me what that hunch is?" I ask, wanting to know what is going on inside his brain. 

"Scully...It's just a hunch. But..." Mulder stops talking, searching for words. "Trust me, Scully. I can't tell you now." 

The silence falls on the car once again. Nothing. I hate the silence. It is the worst thing. You never know what the other person is thinking. Especially, Mulder. In the other life we could just look at one another and know immediately what the other was thinking, feeling, but I'm afraid that we haven't gotten those looks down yet. Heck, it took us almost four years to get the first ones down. 

A huge house looms in the distance. It's mammoth shadow cast on the green yard in front. Both Mulder and I intake our breathes quickly, not believing it. 

A blank look comes over Mulder's face. I can tell instantly that something is wrong. 

"Mulder?" I question in my doctor tone. 

He takes his eyes off the road and looks at me blankly, his eyes searching. "I've been here before," he whispers.   


I stare at Mulder completely shocked. "What are you talking about, Mulder? You couldn't have been here before," I tell him, not believing myself. 

Mulder pulls the car up next a huge tree at the end of the long drive way. He turns off the car and starts to get out. I place my hand on his shoulder, trying to get an answer out of him. 

He just looks over at me; his eyes full of fear. We both get out of the car. The sun had finally gone down and the darkness was starting to set in. 

The huge house looms over us as we get closer and closer, trying to go quietly. Nothing appears to be inside and there are no lights on. 

"Looks like nobody's home," Mulder says in his monotone voice. 

We reach the massive door and stop. 

"Mulder you don't have to do this," I tell him. 

"But I have to," Mulder responds. 

I raise my fist to knock on the door, but Mulder pulls out something to pick the lock. 

"Mulder...you could lose your job for that," I nag. 

"Nobody's home, Scully. Besides the guy has the same last name as me. He must a relative. Just think of it as bending the rules a little," he whispers as he picks the lock. 

"Bending the rules gets you in trouble," I mumble under my breath. 

He opens the door. The smell of a mold greets our awaiting nostrils. I stare at the huge opening way in the house. Everything is covered in sheets, nothing...no one is here. 

"Mulder?" I ask. 

Mulder walks further into the house. I scurry behind him, not wanting to be alone in the entryway. 

He silently walks up the stairs, his memory leading him to a small room. My heels click in the wooden hallway. Too loud for my comfort. Mulder reaches the dresser and opens up the second drawer from the bottom. Nothing appears to be in the drawer. 

"Mulder what are you doing?" I ask looking over his shoulder. 

He lifts up a wooden plank from the drawer and reaches for the object beneath it. 

"Scully, how would I have known that was there if I'd never been here before?" 

I start wondering the exact same thing as Mulder starts to page through the photo album, a history that neither one of us knew existed. 

  
Mulder pages through the photo album. It has pictures of Mulder as a young boy, each year a picture of him growing more and more into the man he is. There are newspaper clippings from his early high school basketball days and finally clippings from college news and the CIA. It is a scrapbook of his life. It ends with a picture of his family, taken less than three months ago. 

He puts the book down and continues to dig through the drawer. He pulls out another scrapbook and opens the cover. 

"Scully," he says averting my attention to him. 

I look at the scrapbook and see that it is one for me. It starts with baby pictures, follows me through my childhood, and high school, straight through my academic career at med school and even Quantico. 

"Mulder how can that be?" I ask him. 

Mulder puts the scrapbook down and sits staring at the wall, thinking trying to put everything together. 

"CRASH!" Something falls out in the hall. Both Mulder and I look up from our dazes, reaching instinctively for our guns. I pull mine out and walk carefully to the bedroom door, my weapon poised and ready to fire. 

A man appears in front of the door. 

"I'm with the FBI and I'm armed. Walk out of the shadow slowly," I tell the man forcefully. 

The man puts up his arms in self-defense, "Please don't shoot. I'm not going to harm you," the man says with a British accent. 

Mulder puts down his gun first and walks over to the man. The man steps into the light and shows his distinct features. He has unmistakable hazel eyes and a nose slightly larger than normal. His hair is graying around the temples, but I could definitely tell that the man was related to Mulder. 

"Who are you?" Mulder asks, most likely seeing the resemblance. 

The room is completely quiet. All three of us holding our breathes for the answer that we didn't expect to be coming. 

"Fox...I'm your father," the man barely whispers. 

Mulder and I stare at the man, tons of questions going through both of our minds, including what exactly this man was doing here and why there are two scrapbooks, one for each of us.   


"How is that possible?" Mulder asks the man standing in front of him. 

"Fox, I don't think I need to explain to you the process of the birds and the bees," the man says with a thick British accent. 

I try to hold back some sort of a laugh, but I can't help myself. 

"Scully, what exactly do you find so amusing?" Mulder asks getting madder by the second. 

"I...um...I can see where you get your sense of humor from," I tell him. 

"Dana Scully, I'm pleased to meet you finally," Mulder's so called dad tells me. 

"How do you know who I am?" I question, getting paranoid. 

He chuckles and walks slowly over to draped chair in the corner. 

"Ah," he starts like an a storyteller about to tell his greatest story ever told, "I've been watching your career from the day that you started the FBI, even before in medical school. You have always seemed to be an intriguing person and I always wanted to know more about the woman that my son would become involved with," he stops hacking a cough that could wake the dead from a peaceful slumber. 

"Are you all right, sir?" I question. 

Mulder still hasn't said much. He just looks at the man in awe. Most likely trying to find any resemblance to him. I can see Mulder in the man's face, especially around the nose. And the eyes...those are Mulder's captivating hazel orbs. 

Mulder's father gets up and walks over to Mulder. Mulder backs away from the man and holds up the scrap book in self-defense. 

"What is this? What do you want from me?" Mulder asks screaming at the man. 

"Fox, I'm dying," he reveals. 

"Why do you think I care? Why have you led us on this wild goose chase into England?" inquires Mulder. 

"I didn't lead you on this goose chase. I never asked you to come. I didn't leave the clues. I just knew you were coming," Mulder's father finishes. 

"How inviting," Mulder mumbles. 

"I want you to carry on the family legacy," the old man whispers. 

"Which is what? A damn conspiracy that in the end will kill off any family that I have left, including Scully, my partner that I trust with my life?" Mulder spits out at the man. 

"You get your spit fire from your mother," the man says, remembering the times. 

"My mother is still alive," states Mulder. 

"No she's not and you know it. That woman that you've called 'mom' for all these years was just a cover-up of the conspiracy, the work against my life's crusade," he says prophetically. 

"Which is what?" I ask breaking the tension between the two men. 

"Medical experiments with alien human hybrids," the man says with a twinkle in his deep hazel eyes. 

Another page of the book has been opened, another page in this long glimpse that will no doubted lead me to the very end of my own quest, of Mulder's quest which involves the people that he and I so desperately fought against in the other life. Mulder's blood splattered on their tainted hands. This was the beginning of something that neither Mulder nor I knew was coming...it was the beginning of the end. 

  
Mulder and I glare at the smoking man. I can't believe this man. He just seems to love coming and going as he pleases all over the world. 

"What is this all about?" Mulder's father asks somewhat shocked at Mulder's reaction to the smoking man. 

"Sir, Mulder has somewhat of a history with this man, as do I, but it is a bad history," I inform his father. 

The smoking man takes a drag on his cigarette. He is way to calm, too content for the work that he does. I study the man that stands before me. He once told Mulder that he watched presidents die and he was not afraid to die, but if he died then the truth would die with him. 

"Fox, Dana, you are so close to the end of this," The smoking man hoarsely says. 

"I don't understand," Mulder states, "How can we be almost to the end of this? There is so much more to investigate, so much more to see." 

"Don't you understand, Mulder, this is all in your head," the man says, his lips curling in a somewhat wicked smile. 

"All in my head?" Mulder asks sarcastically. "Just like this entire place? Or maybe even Scully?" 

I look at Mulder hard, trying to figure out just what exactly is going on here. If this is all in Mulder's head, then what am I doing here? I can't believe that this would all be in either on of our heads. 

"What do you mean?" I ask the smoking man. 

Mulder's father suddenly fades from the room much like a ghost fading from the darkened old picture that was long ago taken. 

"Dana, you know exactly what I mean," he says, his voice quivering. 

The entire rooms starts to spin and I become lightheaded. My legs collapse beneath my body and I feel myself falling to the ground. I watch as Mulder disappears from my view for the final time. 

The smoking man stands over me, laughing at the misfortune of my life, the life that I had come to know. 

Suddenly the room goes completely black. 

All is still. My body floats through both time and space into an unknown world. A bright light hovers over my head and I struggle to open my eyes. 

"Scully?" Mulder's voice breaks through the fog. 

I start to come to, my body completely tired. Beeping of the machines takes on a rhythmic pattern. I don't want to open my eyes. It takes too much strength, a strength that I can't seem to find in my body. 

"C'mon Scully," Mulder whispers. 

I finally open my eyes. He is blurry at first, but I can see his beautiful facial features and his burning hazel eyes. Mulder begins to smile, it broadening as I open my eyes further. 

"Mulder?" I whisper, my voice very hoarse. 

"Yeah, I'm here," he reassures. 

I begin to look around. The room looks a lot like Mulder's room in 2003, the one that he died in. I strain to look out of the window and see that there is snow on the ground and some more snow slowly falling. 

"Where am I?" I ask not completely understanding. 

"In Georgetown. You passed out in our kitchen and hit your head. I rushed to the hospital and I almost lost you. Will is at your mom's," Mulder tells me. 

I'm back to the future. 

"You look like you are in a daze, Scully," Mulder says looking at me and laughing. 

"I had a really strange dream; you died and I went back in time to try and go through life with the man that you could have been." 

"Was he as good looking as I am?" he asks, still laughing. 

"He was cuter," I tease. 

I stare into Mulder's eyes and realize that I would love this man in any life, including one that I was thrown into. Him and I were always meant to be. In this life and the next. He will always be my soul mate, my partner to the very end. I smile at Mulder. All is well now and I'm happy to be home. I'm going to embrace this life and live it to the fullest and I sure hope Mulder and I will together. 

"Hey Scully?" Mulder playfully asks. 

"What?" 

"Do you remember the time when I was dead?" 

"Yeah, that was a strange situation," We both laugh. All is well now. Mulder is a friend that has left footsteps on my heart. 

********

Please RARE

FIN   



End file.
